


Cheshire Cat Smile

by nouveaux_jours



Category: Thursday Next - Jasper Fforde
Genre: F/F, I Ship It, I wrote this so I wouldn't forget that Lydia exists, they'd be so perfect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 07:42:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5777251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nouveaux_jours/pseuds/nouveaux_jours
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate end to The Eyre Affair. After failing to dissuade Landen from his marriage, Thursday needs something powerfully alcoholic. As luck would have it, she's not the only one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cheshire Cat Smile

I'd never seen the Cheshire Cat quiet before, but I'd never felt such a pressing need for a drink at 2:30 in the afternoon. A few stragglers spread among the booths and tables -- an old man in a racing cup mumbling into his beer, a student with a book and a cup of tea -- but only one person sat at the bar. From the look of her, she'd beat me to it by a few hours.

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" the barman asked.

"They both tend to carry-on," I mumbled.

"A bit of a stretch," he commented, but smiled nonetheless, flashing his huge buck teeth.

"Double gin and tonic," I ordered, still plainly staring. He leaned across the bar.

"She's been here since nine this morning," he whispered. "It's no use talking to her. She just starts reporting on the conversation."

I took the stool beside her. "Afternoon, Lyds," I said cheerily.

She swiveled heavily to look at me, head bobbing over a half-empty pinkish beverage. "Thursday Next," she announced, "darling of Swindon SpecOps, the people want to know. Do you think I'm cute?"

She was wearing a flattering grey skirt suit that I'd seen before on Toad News, but she'd abandoned her jacket on a nearby stool to show a rather mannish dark blue shirt. Her thick auburn hair, which I'd never seen outside of a neat bun, was spilling around her face and shoulders in spiraly straggles, bobby pins clinging at random to the drooping mass at her neck.

I took a long swallow from my G&T.

"That bad, huh?" she slurred, tears welling in her eyes.

"Lyds, you're beautiful. But what are you doing here?"

"Oh, Thursday. I got fired."

"Fired? Why?" If I didn't have her sitting drunkenly before me in a bar in the middle of the afternoon on a Monday, I would never have believed it.

"'Excessive objectivism.'"

"What?"

She gave a miserable laugh. "Apparently I take that whole truth part of journalism a little too literally."

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, I'm serious." She laughed again, sounding a little deranged. She lurched forward and grabbed my shoulder, fixing me with an intense stare. "Thursday. Thursday Next. You exposed the Stonk. And you took down Schitt. Didn't you?"

"Not exactly."

"Ha! No, of course not. They after your job too, huh? Doesn't matter. Don't tell me. I know what happened. After all, it's my job to know, innit?" Her laugh was the bitterer than ever.

"So you reported that, and they fired you."

She nodded drunkenly. "Not my first offense, y'see. I have this ticklish habit of pointing out when Goliath is showing up where they have no business." 

"The way I hear it, everything is Goliath business."

"Shouldn't be." She hiccupped. "But I suppose it is. And it's bad for business if I do my job too well. Who'll hire me, Thursday? Toad News is the best there is. No one reports more than Toad and I reported too much."

A different sort of person would be engrossed in comforting her, but I barely heard her woes. I was still racking my brains trying to figure out how she'd found out the fate of Jack Schitt. 

And then it hit me. Well, sort of.

"Quit reporting, Lydia. Go out for SpecOps."

"What?"

"My job is safe from Goliath, Lydia. They tried to take over my work and they failed. You have the skills of a detective and you can use that. Anyone can look beautiful in front of a camera and read the lines, which is all Toad ever wanted you to do. Go where your considerable talents will be valued."

"Wow."

"Never thought about it?"

"I suppose it's crossed my mind. But it would be so different."

"You'd miss being in front of a camera, would you?"

Her cheeks flushed the same pink as her drink. "Not terribly."

"You liar."

"Hey! Maybe I've had enough of it. It's obviously rather limiting."

"I can't imagine you enjoy being limited."

She grinned rather roguishly. "Oh, I love limits. They're so much fun to push."

Had to give her a laugh for that one.

"Oh, Thursday," she practically purred, leaning her head on her hand and batting her eyelashes heavily. "You're cute when you laugh."

Well, then.

"How drunk are you, Lyds?" I asked.

"Oh, fairly." She laughed. "S'pose I could stand a turn round the block, get out of this stuffy establishment." 

"I'd love to join you," I said, and offered her my arm, which she took with another savage smile.

It's funny, but that smile made me forget entirely about Landen. As a matter of fact, I haven't thought of him since.


End file.
